OTTAWA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Thursday that Canada has met NATO's defense spending target of 2 percent of GDP, achieving the benchmark five years ahead of schedule.
Carney said in a statement that for the past 10 months, his government has moved at "unprecedented speed and scale" to spend more than 63 billion Canadian dollars (about 46 billion U.S. dollars), the largest year-over-year increase in Canada's defence investment in generations.
"In this more fractured and darker world, Canadian leadership will be defined not just by the strength of our values, but also by the value of our strength," Carney said.
He added that Canada has accelerated its path toward NATO's new target of 3.5 percent of GDP on core defence spending and an additional 1.5 percent on defence- and security-related investments by 2035.
Last month, Carney introduced Canada's first-ever Defence Industrial Strategy, aiming to scale domestic defense companies and integrate military spending with strategic sectors of the national economy. ■